Tag: mental health awareness

Women Launch "Joy Tour" To Raise Mental Health Awareness

Two women are on a nationwide mission to spread awareness about suicide prevention.

Two women have given up their jobs and are traveling to all 50 states on what they call a “Joy Tour.”

More specifically, the women—Shontice McKenzie and Cedrica Mitchell—are doing the tour in hopes of raising awareness around the increase in suicide in the United States.

According to AL.com, the two have made one-month long stops in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and now Alabama for the month of February.

The suicide rate in Alabama has been higher than the national average for the past 29 years. The rate there is 16.2 per 100,000, in comparison to the country’s average of 13.9.

According to the Alabama Department of Public Health, suicide is the second-leading cause of death for those ages 10 to 24.

During their tour, McKenzie and Mitchell are hoping to break down the stigma around mental health and increase access to outlets like yoga, meditation, exercise and the arts as a whole.

“We have met so many families who are still in denial about a family member who completed the act of suicide because they don’t want the backlash from the public,” McKenzie said. “They should have received more support around the topic. Then we can prevent suicides. That’s what the Joy Tour is about.”

The Joy Tour was sparked as part of McKenzie’s nonprofit H.U.M.A.N.I.T.Y 360, INC. The women conclude their month-long state visits with what they call a “Joy Jam.”

The Joy Jam is a free event that offers food, connections to mental health resources, and the chance to be educated about different holistic approaches to mental health.

While their visit to each state has varied, McKenzie says the one thing that has remained steady is the fact that people struggle to access appropriate mental health resources.

“Most of these people in these communities are contained in their environment. So, they rarely go outside of their environment,” McKenzie tells AL.com. “I don’t know many mental health resources that are coming to them by going inside of these places. So, we are coming to them.”

After leaving Alabama, McKenzie and Mitchell will head to Tennessee in their 2002 Chevy Trailblazer, which boasts more than 246,000 miles. They hope to eventually replace it with an RV. As of now, the two women plan to conclude the Joy Tour in 2023 in the state of Hawaii.

View the original article at thefix.com

28 February 2019
Doctor Uses Instagram To Start Mental Health Conversation

Dr. Jessica Clemons has launched an Instagram page aimed at helping those in need of mental health care.

These days a lot of people are reaching out through social media to talk about mental health, whether they’re world famous celebrities or everyday people who want to share their difficulties and ask for help.

Now Forbes reports that a psychiatrist named Dr. Jessica Clemons is using social media to not only help open up the conversation on mental health but to also guide people on where and how to get help.

Dr. Clemons’ Instagram page has over 40,000 followers, and she also appeared on a VH1 special, In Session: Live with Dr. Jess, where she did a therapy session live. (Another therapist who has done live therapy sessions, in this case with celebrities, is Dr. Siri Sat Nam Singh, who did a widely seen talk with Katy Perry in 2017.)

Dr. Clemons told Forbes, “I’m really happy my work in mental health gives me the opportunity to take care of people when they need it the most. I think having compassion and the ability to empathize with people is my gift. And I use it to remind people, who may be feeling like they’re suffering mentally, that they are not the summation of the negative things that have happened to them. I remind people that they are not their pain and that they have access to love.”

In launching @askDrJess, Dr. Clemons said attending therapy herself inspired her to have a social media presence. “I had this idea to try to normalize conversations about mental health . . . I remember the day when Instagram debuted the feature where you could post a poll. People had already started asking me things about anxiety . . . I’d done a lot of group work where I’d lead discussions that were also teaching people. So I thought I’d give it a try on Instagram. I posted the poll and 90 percent of people said they wanted to learn more about anxiety.”

While therapy is a private experience, Dr. Clemons didn’t feel reservations about being public on social media. “Using social media, I found ways to connect and talk about things that are real. So I just kept doing it and it felt natural.” Dr. Clemons’ husband also encouraged her to do a live stream every weekend, then “before I knew, eight or nine months had passed and people are still tuning in.”

Where Dr. Clemons does one-on-one therapy with her clients during the week, her weekend live streams “feel like a group experience. It’s not group therapy, by any means, but there is this shared sense of empathy . . . And when they share, there’s this feeling that the group gets to share some of the burden. . . . I’m there as the expert but people also use each other as support.”

View the original article at thefix.com

22 January 2019
Michael Phelps, Jared Leto & More Join Mental Health Awareness Broadcast

Celebs and rock stars will join mental health experts for the live radio broadcast airing on September 9th at 7am.

Artists, athletes, and mental health experts will come together for a two-hour radio special “I’m Listening,” to help raise awareness of the growing trend of depression and suicide—airing in time for National Suicide Prevention Week (September 9-15).

Listeners can call in to the program to share stories about how mental health issues and suicide affected their lives. They can also share their stories via ImListening.org or through social media using the hashtag #ImListening.

The Alternative Press reports that Mike Shinoda (of the band Linkin Park) and Jared Leto (30 Seconds to Mars) will join the live broadcast—which airs Sunday, September 9 at 7 a.m.

While on the road, Shinoda has been paying tribute to his former bandmate and friend, Linkin Park vocalist Chester Bennington, who died by suicide in 2017, shocking family and fans.

Michael Phelps will also be a part of the “I’m Listening” broadcast. The celebrated Olympian, who’s won 23 gold medals, has become a vocal advocate of mental health—promoting mental wellness and the importance of seeking help by sharing his own battles with depression, suicidal thoughts and problem drinking.

Singer Alessia Cara will also appear on the broadcast. The singer and songwriter appeared on the song “1-800-273-8255” (named after the National Suicide Prevention Hotline) alongside rapper Logic and singer Khalid. The song was Grammy-nominated for Song of the Year.

Actor and musician Jared Leto, the lead singer of 30 Seconds to Mars, and members of Pearl Jam, the Stone Temple Pilots and Third Eye Blind will also be featured on the live special.

Mental health professionals will also join the broadcast, like Dr. Christopher Nowinski. The former WWE wrestler co-founded the Concussion Legacy Foundation in 2007, and wrote the book Head Games: Football’s Concussion Crisis, which addresses the long-term effects of head trauma in sports.

Another is Dr. Ursula Whiteside, a clinical psychologist and CEO of NowMattersNow.org, a website dedicated to teaching research-based tools for how to help manage suicidal thoughts and mental health issues.

Dr. Whiteside, who is certified for group and individual Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), works with high-risk suicidal clients in her Seattle-based practice.

“Hearing stories about people’s lives helps us understand suicide so we can approach this topic with people we care about,” she said. “I look forward to answering questions via phone and providing resources even after the on-air broadcast has concluded. This is critical given that suicide is something that 4% of Americans seriously consider.”

Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States, claiming the lives of nearly 45,000 Americans each year, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Depression is also widespread. According to WebMD, nearly 18.8 Americans over the age of 18 suffer from major depression. The majority will not seek treatment.

View the original article at thefix.com

30 August 2018
Carson Daly & NBA Star Kevin Love Discuss Anxiety on Today Show

“I had a moment where I thought I was going to die. I had never experienced something like that. I thought I was having a heart attack,” Love told Carson Daly.

NBA All Star Kevin Love and Carson Daly have something in common—they both struggle with managing their anxiety.

This came up in a recent interview on the Today show, where Love, who plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers, described the panic attack that set off his quest to spread mental health awareness.

“I had a moment where I thought I was going to die. I had never experienced something like that. I thought I was having a heart attack,” he told Carson Daly.

Love is sharing his experience in hopes that he’ll encourage more people to feel comfortable doing the same. Men in particular, Love says, have a hard time opening up about mental health issues.

Raised on this mindset, at first Love, too, tried downplaying his panic attack. “I kind of brushed it off, because in our sport or in life, and being a man, you’re taught to suppress it. You’re taught to suffer in silence,” he said.

Love’s essay “Everyone Is Going Through Something” was published in The Players’ Tribune in March 2018. In it, Love discussed the panic attack and the importance of talking about mental health.

“To me, it was a form of weakness that could derail my success in sports or make me seem weird or different,” he wrote.

“If you’re suffering silently like I was, then you know how it can feel like nobody gets it,” he wrote. “Partly, I want to do it for me, but mostly, I want to do it because people don’t talk about mental health enough. And men and boys are probably the farthest behind.”

With Love and fellow NBA players DeMar DeRozan and Channing Frye speaking up about mental health, the NBA has addressed mental health in the league. It launched a new initiative under NBA Cares called Mind Health, aiming to teach people how to recognize and manage stress, while providing support.

And the NBA Players Association appointed its first director of mental health and wellness, Dr. William Parham.

TV anchor Carson Daly previously shared his struggles with anxiety disorder in March. The former Total Request Live (TRL) host said he was a “worrywart kid” and was “nervous my whole life.”

His anxiety reached a breaking point the more success he achieved. “I had no idea what [a panic attack] was at the time,” he recalled. “The success of my career, I flew to New York, and my life changed overnight. I had a hard time breathing. I was terrified for no apparent reason.”

View the original article at thefix.com

22 August 2018
YouTube Creators Detail Their Mental Health Struggles

“My life just changed so fast. My anxiety and depression keeps getting worse and worse. This is all I ever wanted, and why…am I so unhappy? It doesn’t make any sense. It’s stupid. It is so stupid.”

For many, having a YouTube channel with millions of subscribers would be a dream come true. From the outside, it looks like a fun way to avoid having a real job and rake in a ton of money. But it’s certainly not as easy of a life as it looks. There’s a lot of pressure to keep cranking out content to keep your channel going, and there’s no promise of a steady income.

As Engadget reports, a number of YouTube creators have been speaking out about their mental health struggles. One YouTube creator, Elle Mills, who has over one million subscribers, posted a video called “Burnt Out at 19,” where she said, “My life just changed so fast. My anxiety and depression keeps getting worse and worse. This is all I ever wanted, and why the fuck am I so unfucking happy? It doesn’t make any sense. It’s stupid. It is so stupid.”

Many YouTube creators also feel the pressure of having to constantly crank out content without a break. Jacques Slade, whose channel has close to one million subscribers, tried to take several days off and relax, but he panicked. “I don’t have content for the next four or five days,” he said to himself. “What’s that gonna do to me? What’s that gonna do to my bottom line? When I come back, are people still gonna watch my videos?”

Where people with “regular” jobs can count on a regular paycheck, people with YouTube channels make money depending on how many ads their videos have, the length of the videos, and how many people are tuning in. With Google’s ad guidelines, videos can be removed for trivial reasons, which can cut down on a creator’s income. And it isn’t just the pressure of cranking out new videos that can take its toll. There’s also the fear of not staying relevant with a very fickle audience.

As Karen North, a professor of communication at USC explains, “For YouTubers, the entire relationship [with their audience] is based on what they upload. Therefore there’s a tremendous amount of pressure to maintain not just the quality but the image that they manufacture on a daily basis… [If someone is] absent due to illness or vacation for a few days, audiences want entertainment, and they won’t just wait for next week’s episode. Instead they’re going to go search for something else to fill their time.”

One full-time YouTube creator, Sam Sheffer, still recommends taking mental health breaks from social media, “even if that means not uploading for two weeks. As long as you do things with the right intent and come back strong, things will work out.”

To try and make YouTube a healthier environment for creators, the company has now set up a $4.99 membership fee for some channels and others can sell merchandise from their pages to boost their income as well. (You have to have at least 100,000 members to charge the membership fee, and you have to have over 10,000 subscribers to sell merchandise.)

There has also been an effort to provide YouTube creators with mental health services, and there have also been support groups at events like the VidCon conference.

One YouTube creator says, “I’d like to see YouTube take a more active and actionable role in helping creators outside of the platform, which itself still needs a lot of work.”

View the original article at thefix.com

18 July 2018